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In 1913 the federal division of the Federated Saw Mill, Timber Yard and General Wood Workers Employees' Association changed its name to the Amalgamated Timber Workers' Union of Australia. The earlier union had been registered federally in 1907 and had registered branches in Victoria from 1905, Adelaide 1906, New South Wales, Western Australia and Tasmania 1908. Although this union was deregistered in 1918 its members formed a new union, the Australian Timber Workers' Union, in the same year.

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The Australian Timber Workers' Union was registered in 1918 after the deregistration of the Amalgamated Timber Workers' Union of Australia. The new union extended coverage to workers in box and case factories, saw makers' shops, joiners' workshops, carpenters, implement workers and wood working machinists. In 1940 the union filed an application and succeeded in extending its coverage to most workers employed in the timber and wood industry including cabinet makers and furniture factories. In 1991 it amalgamated with the Pulp & Paper Workers' Federation of Australia to form the Australian Timber & Allied Industries Union. Later in the year another amalgamation with the Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia created the ATAIU & BWIU Amalgamated Union. Further amalgamations eventually saw this union become part of the Construction Forestry Mining & Energy Union in 1993.

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The Constuction Forestry Mining and Energy Union is the result of a series of amalgamations during the early 1990s. Prior to amalgamation there were numerous unions spread across construction, forestry, mining and energy industries. Those unions amalgamated along industry lines to form each of the divisions of the CFMEU. Each division operates autonomously, with its own membership, executive, resources, industry policies and campaigns. These divisions date as far back as the mid-nineteenth century and include such notable unions as the Australasian Coal and Shale Employees' Federation (the Miners' Federation), the Building Workers' Industrial Union of Australia, the Australian Timber Workers' Union, the Federated Furnishing Trade Society of Australasia, the Operative Plasterers' Federation of Australia, the Operative Painters' and Decorators' Union of Australia, and the Federated Engine Drivers' and Firemen's Association of Australasia.